1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to an ergonometrically improved glove having areas near or within natural fold lines of a user's hand with stress relief features to provide lower resistance to flexing and anti-fatigue enhancements.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Latex and other medical gloves are used by medical and/or dental professionals to maintain a sanitary boundary between the medical staff (or other users/operators) and the patient. These gloves have also found their way into non-medical fields such as use by automotive workers, painters, and construction work to reduce the transfer of oils, paints, foams and chemicals onto the worker. The inventions described herein can also be used to increase the usability of sports gloves as well as general gloves for other purposes.
Medical gloves are typically of uniform thickness throughout the glove to maintain a low cost by simplifying production. This has led to a mismatch between the flex patterns of the gloves and the flexing of the hand of the wearer. When the wearer bends his fingers, for example, the glove must stretch unevenly along the wearer's joint and beyond as all hands differ in muscle and skeletal structure. The amount of force required to stretch the glove tends to cause fatigue in the hands of the wearer and can cause other discomfort such as constriction and uncomfortable rubbing/friction along the skin. Additionally, as the glove stretches on one side of the user, an area elsewhere on the hand may also experience bunching/sagging of the material as it fold on itself, for example, bunching beneath the joint of the fingers. In addition to the above disadvantages, this can reduce the tactile feel through the glove and interfere with grasping delicate instruments. A wearer thus often wears ill-fitting (“larger”) gloves than the wearer's hand size to reduce fatigue with disadvantage of bunching at the fingertip or elsewhere than interferes with the grip and with the tactile feedback. What is needed is an economical, ergonomic glove that has anti-fatigue features and does not interfere with natural operation of the hands of the wearer.
Some efforts have been made in the past to provide stress relief areas. One such device is shown by Yarbrough in U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,490. A number of bellows are provided along two fingers of the glove to provide circumferential flex areas as well as too much flexure provided by the bellows causing the fingertips of the gloves to be too loose. Additionally, the portion of the bellows below the finger (palm side) is unnecessary and in the way causing a hindrance to an operator grasping an instrument, for example. Unfortunately, this does not remove the problem of the material bunching in the area opposite the flex zone.
A number of other gloves also provide various solutions, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,283,338, and 6,962,739. However, none of these inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.